


Growing Up

by clairelutra (exosolarmoon)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Pining, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 16:18:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10312202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exosolarmoon/pseuds/clairelutra
Summary: “What do I worry about?” he echoed, laughter calming into confusion as he sank into the spot next to her.Her smile was sweet and soft and conspiratorial as she leaned in just a little bit, and it put Chat’s heart in his mouth in a single glance. “What do you want to be when you grow up?”Yours.The answer was as obvious as it was instantaneous. Breathing in, Chat tried to think of any answer he could actually give her.I want to beyours.





	

“…Do you ever wonder who you’ll be when you grow up?”

Chat considered the question, twirling around the spire as a distant church rang out the first hour past midnight. “Sometimes.”

Ladybug looked up, eyes full of moonlight, and hesitated again. “…Does it ever scare you?”

“What, the future?” Chat hopped down to her level, gravel crunching under his heels and fireplace smoke in his nose. “…A little bit.”

She lowered her eyes from the sky to where the carpet of golden city lights met the horizon, a knit in her covered brow. “Not… the future, but…”

Dropping into a crouch next to her, Chat rested his chin on his palm and waited for her to gather her thoughts. Conversations like this weren’t unusual between them, and he knew the rhythm of them by now.

Ladybug breathed deep, breath clouding in the chill night air, and said, “I mean, do you ever get scared that… maybe you’ll never be who you wanted to be? That maybe you’ll just…” She shrugged uncomfortably. “I don’t know, fail?”

Something squeezed tight in Chat’s chest, fueled half by the wistfulness in her voice and half by his own anxieties.

“Sometimes.”

Ladybug pulled her eyes away from the city to shoot him a droll look. “Only sometimes?”

“Worrying is a sign of overthinking,” Chat said wisely, tapping his temple for emphasis. Then, catching her surprised look and unable to resist, he added, “Never thought I’d see day _you_ stopped to think that much.”

Ladybug dug her knuckles into his side. _“Excuse me?”_

Her gesture was met with laughter — and _that_ laughter was met with a huff in turn.

“Oh, shut up,” she grumbled without heat as he subsided. “What do _you_ worry about, dork?”

“What do I worry about?” he echoed, laughter calming into confusion as he sank into the spot next to her.

Her smile was sweet and soft and conspiratorial as she leaned in just a little bit, and it put Chat’s heart in his mouth in a single glance. “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

_Yours._

The answer was as obvious as it was instantaneous. Breathing in, Chat tried to think of any answer he could actually give her.

_I want to be **yours**._

“I’ll…” He cleared his throat, his face heating. “I’ll let you know if I ever get there.”

Ladybug pouted. “Well, _that_ sure makes it harder to help.”

He barked a noise that might’ve been another laugh and bumped their shoulders together, and then laughed for real when she tossed her head and turned up her nose, the corners of her mouth twitching.

“A man’s journey is his own,” he said, aiming for his most theatrically serious, then threw in a flex and a charming grin when she deigned to look at him again.

She sighed and thumped an arm down on his shoulder, the rakish smirk on her face probably enough to send any number of delicate maidens swooning onto their couches, and his heart’s steady rhythm of _it’s you it’s you it’s you_ just beat louder and louder and _louder_.

“Pull the other one, you _dork.”_

“…Later,” he finally promised, too breathless and too longing to make up some other, better excuse. “I’ll tell you later.”

_I’ll tell you when I think I have a chance._

She paused, eyes unbearably gentle, and watched him for a second, and then said, “Okay.”

And it felt like the greatest irony of the night that that was all it took to give him hope.

**Author's Note:**

> chat being in love with ladybug gives me life, just in case you somehow couldn't tell


End file.
